


Misunderstandings

by BrittaR (Taaya)



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: F/M, Minor Wedding (mentioned), Mousse au chocolat, Traditions, bit of Hurt/Comfort, proposal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 06:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,407
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15680178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Taaya/pseuds/BrittaR
Summary: While on bridge duty during a wedding, you have an emotional reaction that get's you and Spock talking.





	1. Misunderstandings

You sat on the bridge at the communications station, playing skeleton crew. The Enterprise was dead in space, not due to damage but simply awaiting new orders after the last mission - attending a party for a newly signed peace treaty that never took place because obviously the two formerly fighting planets found peace to be boring - ended before it even began.  
It was just the two of you. Spock on the command chair, you monitoring communications, both of you ready to jump to helm if anything occurred there.  
And while it was your duty to substitute for Uhura right now, one of your ears still was focused on the broadcast from the rec room.

You could hear the Captain‘s voice opening the ceremony to wed two fellow crewmen. Ensign Nesbitt from Xenohistory and Lieutenant Wei from Torpedo Control finally made their vows after dating since the Academy as far as you knew. Since you were part of the linguistic crew, you had not much to do with either of them. Though that didn’t stop you from being happy for the two of them.

Even Spock seemed to listen to the ceremony. Maybe because while he was on duty he could not zone out of the noises on the bridge, but maybe he actually was interested in the wedding.  
Unfortunately that caused him to also hear you, as you sniffed.

He arched a brow at you.

You smiled, a little guilty. The two of you were something like friends. You played music together, he helped you with your Vulcan readings as you just started with the language, while you helped him translate scientific articles from those species still not publishing in Standard or any other easy Federation language. Sometimes you could even annoy him enough so that he would give in and join you in the rec room or a concert or a movie night. So you considered, you two were actually pretty close. Maybe that could even be considered as some kind of romantic relationship? You knew that Vulcans were rather conservative when it came to sex, so it actually could be. But at least you never talked it out.  
Anyway, you did not expect him to understand why your eyes were wet, so you just shrugged. „It’s just a human thing, don’t worry about me.“

You should have known better. Spock stood up and came over to your station, unblinkingly watching you.

„You know, that’s getting a little creepy“, you tried to change the mood, or at least to get him to back off. Curious Spock was nice and sometimes even funny, unless one was the object of his curiosity.

„You are emotionally influenced by the wedding“, he stated calmly. 

„Yep.“

„May I inquire why?“

You could not help but roll your eyes. Not because of him, but rather because of the task at hand.  
„D‘you remember the movie night when they were playing City of Angels?“

Spock just nodded.

„And in the end you asked me why I was crying over the death of a fictional character.“

„Am I to understand that this feels to you like somebody you grew to like dying?“

Okay, you chose the wrong approach as it seemed. Now you had to go with it. „Nah. It’s just the same principle. Emotionally relating to something that happens to others. This are no tears of grief but … well, maybe not exactly happiness either. But sometimes humans can be moved to tears, good tears not sad ones, over romantic gestures or words, too. Okay, and maybe sometimes there’s a little transference thing happening. You know? You imagining yourself to be in that position and crying in happiness and sadness at the same time, because in your imagination you take their place and you’re happy, but you know in real life you will probably never end up with a wedding as beautiful as this. Or at all.“

„I certainly do not know“, he stated, maybe a little scandalized? 

You bit your tongue but finally managed not to laugh at his face.

„So you are trying to picture yourself as part of the newly-weds and you cry out of happiness in their situation but also out of sadness because in reality you are not to be married right now?“

You blinked. That was what you said. „Somehow. Yes. And no. Look, Spock, that’s a thing even we humans ourselves can’t explain completely. So as much as I would like you to understand, I don’t understand it myself. So … can’t we just let it be?“

„Affirmative.“ He nodded and went back to the Captain‘s chair, only to turn around with it to face you yet again.

„But am correct in my understanding that part of you emotional turmoil stems from you wishing you could marry yourself?“

You thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. „Maybe a little. I mean, I don’t hate the thought of marrying someday. If I find the right person that is. But I don’t necessarily need a partner to be happy either. It would just be a nice addition. Somebody to warm my feet at night. For playful banter. Yeah, I guess, I kinda like the thought that I might marry someday. What about you? I mean, I heard about your last attempt. Being dumped at the altar … Tough. And stupid of your fiancé, by the way. Seems you can be logical and stupid at the same time.“  
You didn’t know much about that woman, just heard rumors. But you know that you hated her. Whatever happened between them, she was stupid to let such a nice person - well, for a Vulcan - go. How could anybody not find him charming?

His face was as blank as ever but Spock‘s eyes looked … sad? You were not sure. Even after two years of - whatever it was - you still were not that capable of reading him. Or he just left you wondering, even when you were right?  
„I thought that I already found a partner. But I clearly I was mistaken.“

„Yeah, I know, but … come on. It’s been more than two years since your not-really-wedding. I mean, I‘m not saying you have to go on, but … just maybe … think about that one day there might be somebody out there for you. Don’t give up hope, just because one girl dumped you.“

„I was not talking about T‘Pring“, Spock stated calmly. Or rather cold? 

„So, there was somebody else? How come I don’t know? Who? Did she dump you as well? Or he? God, I want to punch that person! How can anyone do this to you? Don’t they see what I see?“ Maybe you started rambling. And ranting.

Spock watched you with yet more emotions displayed in this oh so human eyes that you could not read.

„There is a person I tend to share my life with. I had assumed that said person knew that emotional closeness such as ours is beyond any friendship Vulcans take part in. Therefore I also assumed that this person was my partner and intended. But it appears that I was mistaken and am only a friend to said person as said person claims to not have found the right one to marry yet.“

„Who‘s that stupid … Oh.“ You slapped your own head against your forehead in what would have been an epic facepalm if it had not hurt so much.

He just arched a brow, but it didn’t look as Vulcan-amused as usual.

„Sorry, I … sometimes I thought it possible, but you never said anything. So I … I just. I‘m sorry, Spock. Hold on. Did I just miss two years of relationship?“

„One year, two months, seven days, 23 minutes and ..“

You shot him a glance.

„Prior to that you were a friend. But at that exact date you …“

„I was down there on that desert planet and collapsed in the heat. And when I woke up, you were there, holding my hand.“

He nodded and came closer again. „You almost died.“

„And you saved me“, you whispered.

„As much as it pains me, I was not responsible for your survival. I merely carried you to the doctor who then fulfilled his duty.“

„And you stayed with me all night, reading to me when I was too weak to hold the PADD, and I … I thought you just did it because we’re friends. I am so stupid.“

You waited for Spock to protest but he just seemed to hold back a smirk.

„But you do want to be my partner?“, he finally asked.

„Hell, yes!“

„And would you say that I am the right partner for you?“

„Are you trying to propose?“ You stared at him, unsure what to think of it. You weren’t that keen on sexual relations anyway so you didn’t mind not even sleeping with him before he asked you to be his wife. Hell, you wouldn’t mind never having sex with him. What you had was enough to make you utterly happy whenever you spent time with each other. But proposing minutes after you first understood that he thought you to be a couple was … a bit unorthodox. But then everything with Spock was.

„Shall I refrain from it?“, he asked and this time you could read his confusion. „Maybe I should tell you first that Vulcan marriage bonds are not easy to be dissolved. But we could first marry the human way?“

You laughed. „You are my friend, you won’t get rid of me in life anyway. I can not imagine a future in which I ever love you not enough anymore to stay at your side. It’s just … I will say yes. I am going to marry you and bond to you if you really want me. But … might I point out that we‘re on duty and this is not the most romantic place in the world to make a proposal, especially since any minute the others might come back?“ 

Spock gave this thought a moment and then inclined his head. You knew duty was more important to him then this and it was to you, too. You didn’t want to miss any emergency call just because you were to busy lovingly blinking at your Vulcan. And now you had all the time in the world. Now that you both knew what you wanted.

You grinned. „Also you don’t want them to find me snogging you, I guess.“

„What exactly is snogging?“

A diabolical grin spread across your face. „You‘ll see. And I‘m looking forward to it.“


	2. Traditions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that he knows a proposal is in order, Spock wants to do it properly.

After his shift, Spock went back to his quarters. While he assumed you would be waiting on him, he wanted to do some research. Now that it was settled that he would propose to you, he wanted to to it right. 

But first he had to find out something else. In the linguistic databank he found what he was looking for: ‘Contrary to popular American belief, snogging is just kissing- not full on lurve action. Full on kissing, yes- but a snog does not define any other sexual act.’ He took a deep breath. That sounded not so bad. He could live with that.

So now … How was he supposed to propose?

Spock left his quarters to ask permission to enter next door. 

“Come in”, Kirk’s voice sounded through the door and the Vulcan entered. “Spock. What can I do for you?” 

“Captain. I would like to know how humans propose a wedding. Is there anything I have to keep in mind or traditions to uphold?”, he asked, standing there stiffly, hands behind his back. 

“You … what?” Kirk stared at him.

“Have I said something wrong?” 

“You want to marry? Again? I didn’t even know you were seeing somebody.” 

Something told Spock that he should not say that until today you had not known either. 

„I did not know that I had to point it out. As my intended is not part of the science staff I assumed that I would not need permission to see her.“ He still was your superior, yes, but your direct superior was Uhura, therefore he saw no conflict with the rules of Starfleet.

Jim sighed. „That’s not what I meant. I just …thought you‘d tell me. You know, as a friend.“ He paused. „This is not about that Pon Farr thing again, is it? Oh, if it’s okay to ask.“

„You may ask. As I once said, you are my friend and as such I am allowed to take you to my wedding even if it is held according to Vulcan customs in my time of Pon Farr. But no, this is not the case right now. I do want to marry without my body urging me to … mate.“ If his ears got slightly green, the rather low lights in the Captain‘s quarter hid it well. „But as I my intended is human, I am at a loss as to how to propose. Could you, as my friend, help me? What kind of customs do I have to observe and what should I refrain from doing?“

Kirk smiled a little helpless, overwhelmed with the situation. “I only tried it once and we never got to the actual wedding part, so I’m not much of an expert. So, let’s first see what the computer banks come up with.” He gestured for Spock to move around the desk so the two of them could look at the screen together.

“So … well … present the bride’s father with the tooth of a whale when asking him for the hand of his daughter. Doesn’t sound that good. Where would you get a whale on a spaceship? Or your father-in-law, for that matter.” 

Spock arched a brow. “Is it still common on earth for the father to decide which man or woman the daughter is allowed to marry? I do find that tradition … sexist.” 

“Yeah, you’re probably right. And it’s not that common anymore to even ask. I mean it’s a nice gesture, but even if you do and the parents say no, you can still marry. So it’s just an irrelevant little bit of culture you don’t really have to uphold.” Jim frowned. But most of the databank articles on proposal included what to present the parents with when asking. He sighed and looked up another thing. Grand romantic gestures. “Let’s try another way, shall we? I assume you don’t want to make a public spectacle of your proposal.” 

“Indeed not.” 

“Thought so. Okay, so no singing or flashmob or anything alike. See, there … is no real tradition you have to play along with. Not anymore. There’s just … Hell, proposals are hard.” 

Spock inclined his head. “I figured. That is after all why I came to ask your advice. You said you once proposed? How did you do that?” 

Jim blushed. “Actually it was not really a plan. I just … babbled about it during …. well, coitus without even thinking about it. And when I noticed what I had said later on, I just made her a tea. You know, it was just … cuddling and tea and nothing we didn’t do on other days. But than that’s me. Ruth knew that I spoke without thinking way too often so she didn’t mind.” 

Jim switched off the screen and ran a hand over his forehead. “Okay, now that you know there are no traditions, … do you want to do anything special or just ‘go with the flow’ and ask her when you feel like it without any preparation?” 

Spock thought about that for a moment. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’ve waited for Spock for an hour when you finally gave up. You knew you should feel disappointed as you had hoped you could spend the evening together. But then again you knew him. He was probably meditating on his feelings, overthinking them and then forming a plan about how to go on. After all that was what you loved about Spock. How he was a little different. A thoughtul man, only speaking after giving everything a thorough time of thinking and calculating odds and having at least three different alternatives planned and … You loved all that. So you had to accept it in times, when you were a little inpatient as well. 

So you went out for the evening. Not that there was much to do on a spaceship, but at least there were always people. When you worked in three shifts, that meant that after 8 hours of work you had 16 hours of time to sleep and mingle. And so you never had to be alone on the Enterprise if you didn’t feel like it. 

You spent the evening listening to Uhura’s beautiful singing voice, drank some cheap beer and played cards with a young ensign from Engineering. You had won his dessert rations for a week when he asked if you would prefer Strip Poker. You knew he was drunk and didn’t actually want to flirt with you - or so you assumed at least. He probably just didn’t want to lose any more ice cream and chocolate pudding to you but wanted to keep playing. 

„I would advice you, never to ask my intended such a question again, Ensign“, a voice rumbled through the room.

You looked up and there he was. Spock, dressed in a ceremonial robe, carrying something that looked like mousse au chocolat with two spoons in it. Didn’t chocolate and other desserts with refined sugar make Vulcans drunk?

All eyes were on you, naturally, when Spock came closer and sat down next to you. As much as he kept his voice down, in the silence everybody could hear him.  
„I visited your quarters but you were not there. I did wish to do this just between the two of us.“

You smirked. If you were a nice person, you‘d take him to your quarters now, far away from all those curious eyes. But since rumors were about to spread anyway, you found yourself unwilling to be nice. „Too late for that, I suppose“, you grinned, and even wider yet when you saw Spock’s face turn fondly exasperated.

„As you like languages, I have found many in which I would like you what I seem to have forgotten to communicate earlier in our acquaintance.“ He pulled out a roll of real paper and handed it to you. But even before you could start reading, you heard him recite the same lines over and over again in many different languages. Looking down on the paper you could find all of them in exactly the same order written down.  
‚I cherish thee,  
I choose thee as my friend and partner, lover and soulmate   
for now and forevermore   
Are you willing to marry me?‘  
Klingon, Orion, Vulcan, different dialects of Deltan.

You had heard Uhura gasp. Of course, she was even better with languages. And by now she had tears in her eyes.

He went on to Earth languages, even to fictional ones such as Sindarin, as he knew you liked those as well, until finally he turned to Standard.

„(Y/N), I hereby swear to love and cherish you for the rest of our lives. Will you marry me?“

Of course you nodded and it truly wasn’t your fault that you forgot the strict no-touch-policy Vulcans had, right? So when you kissed him and he almost fell from his chair in shock, that was all his doing.

Thankfully his reflexes were superior to humans, too. He caught himself, clenching his hand around the top of the table, before wrapping the other arm around you to pull you closer.

„But I beg of you to let us retreat to quarters now. I am sure the crew does not wish to see me inebriated by chocolate. That is for your eyes only, especially given that you said something about … snogging?“

Your grin started to hurt your lips, but you didn’t care. „I‘m pretty sure they’d like to see. But … yeah. I‘d love being alone with you. Though you did cost me an interesting round of Strip Poker. You will have to make that up to me. But don’t worry, that fits perfectly into the whole snogging business. What are you wearing beneath your robe anyway?“

Before Spock could answer, you already grabbed his hand and dragged him away. Thankfully he was not too stunned to take the mousse with him. You looked forward to what you could do with it, now, that you were allowed to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got the idea of different languages when I got stuck writing this and was remembered of the love song generator (Liebesliedgenerator) by Bodo Wartke. He's making german piano (or general musical) comedy and made a generator in which listeners can choose which language they want to add in the song (from Shakespearian English over African languages to Klingon and Sindarin - although his Klingon sounds too soft for my ears). Go check it out, it's really nice. And it saved my backside. Coming up with an idea of what exactly a linguist might find great and special for a proposal is really not easy. I'm not planning to never date a linguist!


End file.
